Global Energy Ventures, an Australian start-up that is promoting compression technology as a solution to the challenges of shipping hydrogen, announced that it has completed the development of the ship specifications and general arrangement for its pilot ship. GEV said it plans to submit the designs to the American Bureau of Shipping this fall for a review to achieve an Approval in Principle (AiP) from the classification society.
GEV is targeting its pilot compressed hydrogen ship to be the first commercial-scale vessel available for the marine transport of hydrogen. The design, which is for a vessel with a capacity of 430-tons of bulk hydrogen stored at 250 bar pressure, leverages the engineering work completed in March 2021 for a larger 2,000-ton ship.
“GEV continues to advance the development of our hydrogen shipping program with the pilot 430-ton ship specification and supporting analysis now complete, allowing ABS to commence their review for Approval in Principle,” said Martin Carolan, Managing Director and CEO of GEV.
According to GEV, ABS has been engaged to provide an AiP for the pilot ship. The process will assess the design in relation to international codes and standards to ensure there are no major engineering, regulatory, or safety issues. The detailed work package includes the ship’s engineering analysis and drawings, stability analysis, and tank design calculations.
The company also reports that C-FER Technologies recently completed an analysis of hydrogen permeability that supported GEV’s design assumptions and the selection of a stainless-steel inner liner in its tank design. C-FER is now reviewing the selection of carbon steel and welding techniques in preparation for prototype construction and testing in 2022.